Review: F1 22 adds as much as it takes away

videogameschronicle.com:

It must be difficult to release annual iterations of a series when you’ve all but perfected its central mechanics.

For a number of years now the F1 games have been delivering rock-solid recreations of the sport, meaning anyone expecting an enormous overhaul anytime soon is setting themselves up for disappointment.

This year, however, things are a little different (but only a little). With the real-life F1 seeing some notable changes to its regulations and aerodynamic rules this season, F1 22 has undergone a revamp.

The new car designs mean that instead of ‘flat floors’ there are now aerotunnels on their undersides. This means the car is pulled down more as air flows through it. The result is a game that does handle somewhat differently, though not to the extent that it’s a completely different experience.

There’s more grip on corners and there’s minimal drag on straights, to the extent that players who put a lot of time into F1 2021 will notice a difference, but adjusting to it will take no more time than adjusting to the fact that the title formatting has gone from ‘2021’ to just ‘22’.

There may be minor differences on the track, then, but it’s the new F1 Life mode that EA and Codemasters are trumpeting as the latest big addition to the series.

The idea is that you customise your own avatar and choose from a series of furniture items to customise your own living area, which other players can then check out. In practice, though, it’s not really that appealing at this stage.

There’s only a small selection of furniture in F1 Life at launch, meaning we don’t foresee a situation where players are flocking to each other’s hubs to see which of the five different types of sofa they picked.

“There’s only a small selection of furniture